Saturday plan: slow cooker turkey breast

[Morbius]

Today I saw boneless turkey breast on sale for $2.99/lb, and since it's Tuesday I get a 10% senior discount. I bought one that's about 2.75 lb.

I plan to make it in a slow cooker (actually an instant pot, slow cooker setting). My plan is to throw some thick sliced onions on the bottom, coat the breast with softened butter, some kosher salt & pepper, some paprika and some herbs, place it on top of the onions and seal it up. Four hours later, I pull it out and let it rest for about 20 minutes while I make a gravy with the juices that come out.

Never did this before, but it sounds like a solid plan. Anyone have a comment?

[Nanuke]

1. Sounds delicious (and I am a vegetarian but used to cook turkey). I might add some celery to the onion bed.

[SheltieLover]

3. Great idea imo

[Kali]

6. and carrot

[SheltieLover]

2. Sounds delicious!

Enjoy!

[viva la]

4. I've never made it in a slow cooker

But I bet that keeps it tender.

[viva la]

5. Save the broth for soup?

[Morbius]

7. Well...

I'm not planning to add broth to the turkey to begin with, so the amount of liquid in the slow cooker will be small, enough to make a gravy perhaps, but not nearly enough for soup.

When I make a real turkey, I always make turkey noodle soup with the leftovers. I love it. I use boxed turkey broth because I don't get enough from the carcass (I buy small turkeys; I have a family of three).

If I throw carrots and celery on the bottom of the pot, I expect they will probably be hard and I will have to commit to making soup with the leftover turkey. I'm not sure what I will do with the onions as it is. The onions are only there to create a scaffold, of sorts, to keep the turkey breast off the bottom of the cooker. In theory, I could use anything. I have onions on hand, because I always have onions on hand. I have carrots, too, but we love boiled carrots with butter and dried parsley. We eat carrots probably three times a month. I think I have a celery heart on hand too, so really, I could do the soup with the leftover turkey.

Except I am working overnight Saturday night and Sunday night, so I don't want to invest a lot of time in cooking Sunday or Monday. I'll be dead tired.

I appreciate the suggestions. The plan is to get juicy, moist turkey and eat it with stuffing - the easy way!

[viva la]

8. Right, no bones

That's a great thing about the boneless turkey breast, no need to pick the meat off the bones. That is a real pain.

[Morbius]

9. This worked.

The turkey was moist and tender. I started with a bed of carrots, celery, and onions, because when I hit the grocery store on Thursday night, the quart boxes of turkey stock were on sale for $1.49 apiece. I took it as a message. I seasoned the turkey breast with kosherr salt to start, and if I had it over again I'd use more. I mixed half a stick of butter with a couple cloves of minced garlic, some dried sage, some crushed rosemary and a bit of thyme and rubbed that on the turkey. In the instant pot (slow cooker setting) for four hours, then I pulled it out and let it rest under foil for about 20 minutes.

Looking forward to the soup tomorrow.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

10. Vegan here, but...

The IP is the BOMB for just about everything. Not surprised this turned out so well for you.

I don’t know if you can find them anymore as Mealthy went out of business, but I also have an air fryer lid for my IP so I’m never more than 5-15 minutes from super-fast meals (grilled sandwiches, taquitos, frozen burritos, hash browns, whatever is in the freezer), as well as the usual slow-cooking things like pasta sauce, chili, soup, etc. I tend to make things that work for several meals in a row—e.g. spaghetti the first night, lasagne the next, then pizza to use up the remainder, or or chili can reappear as rice & beans, burritos, then nachos. With only two of us at home now, it’s good to be able to turn 6 qt of something into unique meals so we don’t get sick of stuff.

Such a handy gadget! I gifted my rice cooker and crock pot because the IP just does it all.

[Morbius]

11. The soup was good.

Normally, I use dark meat when making my turkey noodle soup, but this wasn't bad at all. Overall, I strongly recommend turkey breast in a slow cooker; makes for good eating on a budget.